Four days after Marvin moved into Immortal Ignition's workshop, Ella had another official duel. It was Tuesday at 6 PM against Xintian, another top-twenty mech. Marvin also scheduled a duel that day against a lesser mech from Sector 58. He wasn't intending to skyrocket his points for a while; he was comfortably the highest-ranked mech in his Sector thanks to The Everlancer.
Before the duel, Renee would place the ping-ping tracker on Aria's shuttle. After, they would follow it wherever it went, which would be Hoxing University if Ella's suspicions were correct.
Ben also pitched an idea of having a joint press conference with Immortal Ignition. Caroline and Ella would find each other in the hallways and walk into the swarm of reporters together.
"We're supposed to be friends?" Caroline had asked. Ben nodded. Even though Ella was controversial among pilots, Immortal Ignition was currently the highest-ranked mech this season. Allying with such a contender was undeniably a good look.
Their duels were in a grand, colorful colosseum that had transparent film over its ancient architecture, displaying the mech battles to anyone watching from the sky. The battleground was no bigger than average, but the stands were so vast they were dizzying to look at. Thanks to spacewarpers, people sitting in the farthest reaches of the colosseum could still get a perfect view of the fight. Sunlight reflected off metal walls and pillars, pouring directly out of the horizon borders. There was no artificial lighting besides.
Marvin went before Ella and won handily against his opponent. The improvements Luyan had made to Sabersong were drastic to say the least. Plasma lining around his swords, a better helmet, and a lower-body microprocessor made him feel like a completely different mech.
When he was done and back in the team room, Renee and Ben congratulated him and patched him up. Then they went outside to meet Caroline in the hallway. As Caroline stepped out of the piloting room, another mech team walked into view—the team that was going after Immortal Ignition. They were dressed in green and purple jackets and their mech carried an interesting three-pronged blade. Marvin wasn't going to pay them much attention, but a certain face caught his eye. She was missing her robe and conical hat, but that was without a doubt Diana Kane.
Marvin froze and glanced at Ben who'd taken a step back. His face was unreadable, but Marvin knew his fear had to be ten times his own.
Diana Kane piloted Centium Prime, the gang's flagship mech. She was a rare case where her combat prowess in real life dwarfed her piloting ability. There were rumors that she, as a human, could beat some mechs in a duel.
Fortunately, the four Hosaka guards standing in the hallway would prevent her from getting any funny ideas. Luyan had hired extra to watch over Ella's room.
Marvin followed Diana's gaze and found it not on him nor Ben. The leader of Centium paused, offered a strange smile, and said quietly, "Hi, Renee."
Renee let out a silent, "Oh!" and waved quickly, staring as Diana went into the piloting room.
Marvin blinked and rewound his memory to Diana's smile. It had seemed almost shy. Maybe that was how it usually was—she wasn't exactly the archetype of a gang leader.
Better not be the alternative, he thought. If Renee was friends with this murderer, he'd have a much harder time staying at Luyan's workshop with her.
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The four of them waited in the hallway until Ella had won against Xintian. Another one-hundred-fifty points for Immortal Ignition, another top-twenty mech taken down by this nineteen-year-old. Once was a fluke, but twice? Maybe Ella wasn't completely carried by her melt-tech.
Team Sabersong and Team Immortal Ignition walked upstairs into the stands and faced the masses. There weren't as many reporters this time, but they still drew in a considerable crowd. Marvin walked in stride with Immortal Ignition, both of them behind their respective pilots.
Caroline let Ella answer most of the questions. Marvin didn't mind it at first, but the questions Caroline did answer were… well, they weren't the answers he would've given. Caroline had a surface-level understanding, which was better than most, but there were things she omitted or simply got wrong. Things Marvin could do nothing about.
He remembered what Ella had said about fame. He wasn't doing this for fame, so why was he getting ticked off?
He pushed those feelings down.
Eventually, they exited the stands and stored their mechs. Luyan and Ella went back to watch the battles while Marvin, Caroline, Ben, and Renee headed to the parking garage. If Ella was right, Aria would be there soon as well.
They're putting a lot of trust in us, Marvin thought as they took the elevator up the garage. They could easily lie to Ella and not follow Aria.
Renee and Ben took a shuttle, leaving the garage and heading back to the farm. A decoy so Aria wouldn't get suspicious. Caroline sat in a separate shuttle with Marvin on her shoulder, waiting at the parking garage with a view of Aria's shuttle.
"Can I ask a question?" Marvin asked. His words appeared on Caroline's tablet.
"No," Caroline said. She laughed. "When have you ever had to ask permission?"
True, but this one felt different. "Renee and Diana Kane… do they know each other?"
That's stupid, of course they do! They literally said hi to each other.
"Oh man," Caroline grumbled. "You're talking about back there?"
Marvin caught himself mid-phantom-nod and said, "Yes."
"Renee had a crush on her. Still has, maybe."
Marvin felt his stomach twist. "Does she not know about…"
"Cam?" Caroline sighed. "No. I keep telling Ben to tell her, but he won't. He doesn't want me to, either. He thinks we won't ever cross paths with Centium again, so there's no point."
Renee and Ben had grown up with Cam; he'd been like their older brother. But when Diana had murdered him, Ben had lied to Renee, saying the Manhunters were responsible.
"I don't know how serious it is," Caroline continued. "Renee did a lot of work for Centium's inner circle, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were pretty close."
"But not anymore?"
"Gosh, I hope not."
They fell quiet. As much as Marvin wanted to believe Renee would get over it, he did not know her side of the story. She hadn't made the choice to leave Centium. For all he knew, she had liked working for the gang. Who was to say she wasn't a psychopath as well?
Renee, a psychopath? Who are you kidding?
Maybe Ben had lied. Maybe Diana had a lookalike who had killed Cam.
The talk got Marvin's mind wandering to another topic: could he, as a robot, feel attraction to people? For the past month, he'd felt nothing resembling it. He recalled lying in the grass, Ella on top of him, and searched himself for an emotion. Nothing. Ella was conventionally attractive—he could admit that—so shouldn't he have at least felt embarrassed or something?
"Caroline," Marvin began. Usually he wouldn't open up like this, but they had nothing but time to kill. "Do you think robots can like people? Like, romantically?"
"I don't see why not," Caroline said. "I mean, robots, no, but you? You feel everything else, right?"
I don't know about that. He registered emotions when they popped up, but who knew how many nuances had been cut out? He'd never recognize them; he couldn't know something he didn't have.
"Do you like someone?" Caroline asked. She was grinning in the shuttle window's reflection.
"No," Marvin said. When Caroline raised an eyebrow, he insisted, "No, really."
Now that he thought about it, he knew very little of his teammates' lives. It was strange to think about those three having connections outside of each other.
"Do you like anyone?" Marvin asked. "Or, I mean, are seeing anyone? Or something." Way to go with the wording.
"I'm aromantic, actually," Caroline said. "I've never liked anyone like that."
"Oh," Marvin said. "Never?"
"Nope."
Your whole life, never liking anyone. Would you feel left out?
Marvin's curiosity was rising, but he didn't want to press too much. This wasn't exactly the time and place to be talking about personal things.
But we should be more open to each other, he noted.
At that moment, a woman walked out of the elevator and crossed the parking garage. She wore a black jacket, having evidently switched out of her red and orange one. Hiding that she's part of Team Immortal Ignition?
The jacket alone could be brushed off as a coincidence, but Aria walked with a pace no one could deny was rushed. She had somewhere to be.
Caroline sat up straight and tapped the dashboard screen. Two red dots showed up, marking the corresponding ping-ping trackers. They wouldn't have to follow close.
But then Aria suddenly slowed down, like she'd caught herself acting too suspicious. She turned slightly and tilted her head. She was staring right at Marvin.
The shuttle window is tinted, he reminded himself. More likely than not, Aria was just surveying the surroundings.
But then the woman began walking in their direction. Marvin heard Caroline's breaths grow shallow, and he felt his own pulse increase.
"What the hell?" Caroline murmured, leaning forwards. She deactivated the ping-ping trackers.
She's not heading for us, Marvin told himself.
But after a few more seconds, unless Aria was hoping to walk through their shuttle, there was no denying that Aria's new destination was them.
"Do we leave?" Marvin asked.
Caroline's silence meant no, as it would only look more suspicious. But Aria had obviously recognized something about them already, and they had to be ready to defend themselves.
Caroline shifted backwards, opening the shuttle's floor compartment ever so slowly. There she kept the plasma rifle she'd used to kill Gerard. She slid it out of the box and set it beside her chair. Then, to Marvin's surprise, she rolled down the window.
The bustling city and Aria's footsteps seeped into Marvin's microphones. He wished he had something he could use to defend him and Caroline, something he could simply move. His mech was in the back of the shuttle, but there was no time to sync with it.
As Aria approached, she smiled. "Sorry, I know this is out of the blue," she said. "I thought I saw your shuttle when I was coming in. You're Sabersong's pilot, right?"
Caroline nodded slowly. "And you're Immortal Ignition's programmer?"
"Yup," Aria said. "I just wanted to congratulate you. I saw a recording of you versus The Everlancer, too—incredible stuff."
There was an awkward pause. Marvin searched the woman's face for any sign of an act, but she seemed genuine.
Caroline smiled thinly. "Thank you. It's nothing compared to Immortal Ignition, though."
"You're still a rookie," Aria said. "I'd reckon you'll surpass us one day."
Marvin wasn't sure what to make of that. Was Aria growing tired of her team, or was that simply a formality?
Whatever the case, it seemed she wasn't trying to kill them yet. As she and Caroline exchanged a few more words and said goodbye, Caroline pushed the plasma rifle back into the floor compartment and activated the ping-ping trackers.
Aria entered her shuttle and lifted off, zooming through one of the gaps in the walls.
"Are we still following?" Marvin asked.
"Your call," Caroline said. She sounded spooked.
The odds of this being a trap were low, but Aria could be craftier than they expected. What had seemed like a pleasant surprise of a talk might have been a ruse to disarm them.
"Let's follow but keep our distance," Marvin said.
"Alright."
Caroline and Marvin waited until the tracker's signal grew faint, then went after Aria's shuttle.